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London hotels are getting on the Paddington bandwagon with special packages like at the Draycott Hotel, which includes a Paddington Bear, book and afternoon tea in its family package. (The Athenaeum Hotel’s Paddington Package includes a stay in the hotel's one-bedroom apartments, a special Paddington tea and more. Stop in at the Lancaster London for a hot drink and complimentary Paddington Bear "Elevenses," homemade apricot cake with a serving of homemade orange and apple marmalade. Paddington famously loves marmalade.

October and November are good months to snare a London hotel deal, according to Hotwire. There won't be the huge crowds you'd find in summer. (Tip: Book a flight and hotel together to save even more.) Another plus: Like in Washington, D.C., many of the top museums are free.

Let Paddington -- and your kids -- guide you around London with "Paddington’s Guide to London," a great bet for families visiting London, offers "a bear's-eye view" of his favorite sites from Paddington Station where he arrived as a stowaway from "deepest, darkest Peru," with a tag around his neck reading "Please Look After This Bear. Thank You."

"There were so many people rushing to and fro I didn't know which way to go, so I sat on my suitcase outside the Lost Property Office and waited for something to happen, which it did, of course," Paddington explains. "I was befriended by a lovely family called the Browns, who took me home to live with them and their two children, Jonathan and Judy, not to mention their housekeeper, Mrs. Bird."

"The success of the Paddington stories was a total surprise," said Jankel, herself the mom of grown children. Her parents are now in their late 80s and divorced, but happily share custody of the original Paddington, she said.

Paddington's duffel coat and hat, Jankel said, came about because her dad wore them. Paddington wore the identification tag around his neck because that's what children evacuated from London during World War II wore.

Michael Bond, now 88, is still writing about Paddington -- "Love from Paddington" will be published in the fall.

"To me," Jankel said, "Paddington has always been a real person, so real that if he walked into the room I wouldn't have been surprised."

As for the original Paddington rescued from the department store, he is well and happy, but never exhibited to the public. "That would be like putting a member of your family in a glass case," she said. He stays home, "well-loved and well-worn."

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